Next Time, Donuts.

Success?

Today was a momentous occasion. It was the first time that I had ever decided to actually ‘deep fry’ something. Aside from the few times in college when I worked at the dining hall and had to fry up occasional orders of French Fries (and on one occasion received a particularly nasty oil burn on my wrist) I have never tried to deep fry something. My mother always had the rule in place when I was young that “If you want to deep fry anything, it has to be outside, otherwise you’ll smell up the house.” We didn’t have a stove outside therefore we never fried anything. I feel like I missed out on homemade donuts or elephant ears or something.

So being the responsible(ish) twenty-something that I am, I decided that since I have my own apartment, gosh darn it, I was going to make fried chicken. But really just nuggets, made from a chicken breast I pulled out of the freezer last night. My thought reasoning was smaller pieces cook faster and it is rather late. But hey, everyone loves chicken nuggets, yes?

I pulled out my trusty cookbook (kept on hand for reference purposes. I tend to stray from the recipe pretty quickly, but it’s usually nice to see what they suggest as a starting place). I (sorta) followed the recipe for “Pan Fried Chicken” and…well, let’s just say I’ve had better. While the frying part went flawlessly (heat oil, toss chicken bits in flour mixture, drop in oil, flip over when needed, remove from oil when done cooking), I found that my ingredient mixture of flour, garlic salt, pepper and paprika brought very little flavor to the breading. I need to figure out my own 11 herbs and spices I guess. Or maybe next time toss them in buffalo sauce. It's not that my little nuggets were bad, I just wouldn't share them with anyone else.

Hey! I figured out how to make deep fried things! But apparently I need to stray farther away from the cookbook and figure out what works taste wise. Eh, it was a learning experience. And I didn’t have to call the firemen…although everyone needs an occasional fireman in her (or his) life.

Oh well. Until next time.